Guillaume Courtois
Guillaume Courtois or italianized as Guglielmo Cortese, called Il Borgognone or Le Bourguignon ('the Burgundian'), (1628 – 14 or 15 June 1679[1][2]) was a Franc-comtois-Italian painter, draughtsman and etcher. He was mainly active in Rome as a history and staffage painter and enjoyed high-level patronage. He was the brother of the painters Jacques Courtois (Giacomo Cortese) and Jean-François Courtois.[3]
Life
Guillaume Courtois was born in Saint-Hippolyte (County of Burgundy), in present-day France, as the son of the obscure painter Jean-Pierre Courtois. Very little is known about Guillaume’s youth but it is assumed he received his initial training from his father. The father and his sons went to Italy circa 1636 when Guillaume was still a child. They travelled to Milan, Bologna, Venice, Florence and Siena.[2]
The movements of the brothers Courtois are not very well documented, which has led to alternative theories. It is possible Guillaume Courtois settled in Rome by 1638 where he entered the studio of
Guillaume Courtois spent most of his active life in Rome where he died of gout on 14 or 15 June 1679.[1][2]
Jean-Blaise Chardon and Antonio Dupré were his pupils.[2]
Work
General
Guillaume Courtois was mainly a
Courtois’ first major public commissions were frescoes for the
These early works show the influence of Cortona, combined with the influence of the Baroque style of Agostino Carracci through the mediation of the more dynamic version offered by Giovanni Lanfranco’s work. These influences are reflected in the exuberance in form and color that will remain characteristic of Courtois’ work. The style of Pier Francesco Mola also formed a factor in his development. He also worked alongside Mola, Gaspard Dughet, Francesco Cozza, and Giovanni Battista Tassi on the decoration of the Valmontone Palace of Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili around 1658-1659.[2][8] Some figures painted by Courtois in this Palace were previously attributed to Mola.
In 1661, he painted an Assumption for the church of San Tommaso da Villanova in
In his mature work he further showed the influence of Carlo Maratta, an artist who fused the Baroque and Classicist styles. This is reflected in the sweet faces of the female figures in works such as the Madonna of the Rosary for the St. George Church in Monte Porzio Catone made in 1666 on a commission by prince Giovanni Battista Borghese.[2]
Collaborations
In addition to the frequent collaborations with his brother Jacques, a number of collaborations between Guillaume Courtois and
In 1653 he painted the figures of St. Eustace, the Good Samaritan, a St. Mary of Egypt and St. Augustine in four large landscapes of Gaspard Dughet.[7] This was one of the earliest documented commissions of Courtois and the patron was Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili. The next year Courtois and Dughet collaborated again for the same patron on works for the Palazzo Pamphilj.[2]
Drawings
Guillaume Courtois was a very skilled draughtsman as is testified by the many preparatory studies he left behind and which can be found, amongst others, in the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica. Preparatory drawings are generally in chalk, whereas compositional designs tend to be in pen and ink and wash.[2]
The preparatory studies in chalk (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm and the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf) for The Martyrdom of St Mark fresco in San Marco are very skillful and demonstrate a fluid technique and a firm grasp of form and chiaroscuro.[7]
Further reading
- Getty Museum: Guillaume Courtois
- F. A. Salvagnini, Le pitture di Guglielmo Courtois (Cortese) e la loro casa in Piazza di Spagna, Rome, 1937
- Erich Schleier, Aggiunte a Guglielmo Cortese detto il Borgognone, Antichità Viva IX, 1970, No 1, pp. 3–25
- Dieter Graf and Erich Schleier, Some unknown works by Guglielmo Cortese, The Burlington Magazine, December 1973, pp. 794–801
- Dieter Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Kataloge des Kunstmuseums, Dusseldorf, 1976, 2 vols.
- Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée, Guillaume Courtois et le Bernin, Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art français, 1991, pp. 11–17.
References
- ^ a b c Guglielmo Cortese at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simonetta Prosperi Valentini Rodinò, Courtois, Guillaume, in: Treccani, accessed 14 March 2015 (in Italian)
- ^ a b 'Self-portrait of Guillaume Courtois', called 'Le Bourguignon' Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine at Canesso
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Courtois, Jacques and Guillaume s.v.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 329. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Storia pittorica della Italia dal risorgimento delle belle arti, Volume 2, By Luigi Lanzi, page 238 (in Italian)
- ^ Guillaume Courtois (Guglielmo Cortese) (St Hippolyte, Franche-Comté 1628 – 1679 Rome), Figures Dancing at Foolscap Fine Art
- ^ a b c d e Ann Sutherland Harris. Cortese. Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 14 Mar. 2015
- ^ Le vie degli artisti : residenze e botteghe nella Roma barocca dai registri di Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, 1650-1699, by Laura Bartoni, Roma : Edizioni Nuova cultura, (2012), page 424.
- ^ Laura Bartoni, page 412.
- ^ Still life of fruits and flowers with a figure Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine at Sotheby's
- ^ Guillaume Courtois, Michele Pace del Campidoglio, The beautiful female gardener (in French)
External links
- Media related to Guillaume Courtois at Wikimedia Commons